Day 26 – Singapore Perth,
Australia
April 29, 2005.
It morning and we’re getting close to Singapore after a 12 hour flight. We’ll
arrive at 07:15 and I’ll head off to the lounge to relax for a couple of hours
and freshen up. Will have a shower and then head to the gate for my flight to
Perth. It’s about five hours, so I should be there just after lunch. The time
difference is 12 hours from the Eastern Time zone in North America.
The flight
was uneventful and we landed in Perth just after 2 in the afternoon. Perth is
the capital of Western Australia, and although I’m pretty good at geography I
really didn’t understand where I was going. WA is the largest state in Australia
and is twice the size of Texas. Three European countries could fit inside its
borders with room to spare. It covers one third of the continent and contains an
area of 2.5 million kilometers. It truly is the “Big State”
It was
first discovered in 1616 when the Dutch explorer Dirk Hartog sailed into Shark
Bay. The discovery of gold
near Kalgoorlie was the turning point for the colony. Today,
Western Australia is recognized
as one of the world’s richest sources of mineral deposits. Gold, diamonds, gas
and iron ore are just a few of the resources exported by a multi-billion dollar
mining industry.
Perth, the
heart of Western Australia, and the world’s most isolated capital (it’s 5 hours
by plane to anywhere), is a thriving city of 1.5 million with a pleasant
Mediterranean climate. It is nestled on the banks of the Swan
River which flows through the center of the city on it’s way to the
Indian Ocean not far to
the west.
My side
trip to Perth was planned to enable me to visit the Clare’s. Neville and Jackie
are ex Canadians who have lived in Western Australia for almost twenty five
years. In a previous life we were very involved together in Jaycees, which is a
service club of younger people. Neville gets back to Canada every couple of
years and we have kept in touch. He’s been pushing me to visit Perth for many
years. Last year I diverted to Viet Nam on my way home and he tore a strip off
me and pointed out that another 90 minutes flight time from Singapore would land
me in Perth.
 So
this year I called his bluff. I e-mailed him last June and announced that I
would be in Perth the end of April 2005 and expected to be royally received at
the Clare Hilton. To put things into perspective, that’s like flying from New
York to San Francisco for a 3 day weekend. As I expected, Neville was at the
airport when I arrived in his Perth “Greeter’s Uniform’. Semi-retired, he spends
one day a week at the airport helping travelers with questions.
Neville is
a Type “A” personality (Nancy claims I am to), so it didn’t surprise me that he
had our two and a half days together all orchestrated to the minute. After we’d
said hello he handed me my schedule and announced that my tour of Western
Australia was starting instantly. It didn’t matter that I’d been flying for 18
hours; what Neville wants – Neville gets.
J
For four hours I got a personal tour of the greater Perth. Fortunately I had two
toothpicks to prop my eyes up and every minute on the minute I interrupted his
tour script with the words “that’s magnificent”.
We started
by driving into the downtown center of the city. Perth is a clean and safe with
city with the usual high-rise business towers in the core. From the downtown
area we proceeded up to King’s Park, which overlooks the central area of Perth.
This is a memorial to the fighting Australian and New Zealanders (ANZAC’s) who
fought in the great wars. A dawn ceremony is conducted each year on ANZAC day,
which is the 25th of April, to commemorate the veterans who did not
return. The park consists of a wide selection of Western Australia’s flora and
fauna, walking trails, and gorgeous views of the Swan
River.
From
King’s Park we drove along the north shore of the Swan
River through the more affluent areas of
Perth, which has been the home
of such people as Alan Bond. We were heading for the City of Freemantle and my
first look at the Indian Ocean. Freemantle is the port where the colonists first
arrived in Western Australia.
Today, it
is the hub of the fishing industry in Western Australia and a cruise ship port.
Just outside of Freemantle are miles of seemingly never ending sandy beaches.
This is a favorite spot every weekend for the locals who enjoy the beach, the
sun and the surfing.
From
Freemantle it was time to head up the west coast to the Clare home in Wanneroo.
Neville’s wife Jackie was on hand to greet us. While I got settled in Neville
fired up the barbeque and I enjoyed a steak and sausage dinner. Since I had been
flying for almost twenty hours we didn’t burn the midnight oil.
The first
picture today is me shows the Perth city center skyline. The second shows the
fishing harbour at Freemantle.
Stay tuned
for Day 27 in my “Around the World in 30 Days” saga.
Alan
Salmon
eClub One
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